Situation
A housing association's Chief Executive recognised the communication problem existing within the organisation, one that was not surprising given there were 180 employees located over a number of different sites. He felt that a staff day would help overcome some of the problems and wanted to create an environment that would make everyone comfortable - from experienced executives to staff at all levels, especially those who had never attended a management meeting in their careers.

Solution
As a joint project, a committee from the housing association worked with Bridge Marketing Partnership to devise discussion groups and fun exercises to make the day enjoyable and worthwhile. All housing association employees were able to fully participate on the day as the event was facilitated by Bridge Marketing Partnership and all administrative and organisational details on the day were taken care of by Bridge Marketing Partnership.

Result
At the end of the event, both the Chief Executive and the Chairman of the Executive Committee expressed their belief that the day had met their objectives. Half of the evaluation sheets were returned to the organisation by the attenders and of these 97% said the day had achieved its expressed aims and 97% would attend a similar event in the future. 86% said that the topics were interesting and challenging.

At the event, all staff had been given the opportunity to contribute to the future planning for the organisation. Flip charts from each of the discussion groups were generated that listed at least 5 ideas for tackling specific issues and these were later used by the organisation's planning committee.